Route reliability record
EWR→ORF
Newark to Norfolk
- Flights
- 764
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Distance
- 284 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.5% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.8% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four arrive on time, worth a B− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 764 EWR to ORF flights, with a median arrival 9 minutes early.
Best time to fly EWR to ORF: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 85.3% of the time and Wednesday flights 80.9%, against 77.6% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
77.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 729 completed flights
Avg delay
59 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.45%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
Republic
83.1% on time across 543 flights
These figures cover 764 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on EWR to ORF
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 543 | 83.1% | 58 min | 4.97% | B− |
| United Airlinesthin sample | 221 | 64.5% | 59 min | 3.17% | D− |
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Newark to Norfolk
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 2 of the top 3 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. JFK → ORFNew York to Norfolk | Republic Airways | 81.4% | 85.1% | 4.38% | 11am–2pm, Tue | YX 4359 15:10 |
| 2. EWR → ORFNewark to Norfolk | Republic Airways | 79.0% | 83.1% | 4.97% | 8am–11am, Tue | — |
| 3. LGA → ORFNew York to Norfolk | Republic Airways | 71.2% | 76.5% | 6.90% | 5am–8am, Sat (route) | YX 4589 21:29 |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 13 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am219 flights85.3%
- 11am–2pm1 flights—
- 2pm–5pm110 flights82.7%
- 5pm–8pm74 flights74.6%
- 8pm–5am360 flights72.0%
Scale runs 65% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 85.3% of the time, against 72.0% for the overnight window. That is 13 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 360 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 45 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
July is the worst month at 44.4% on time, 45 points below February, the best at 89.1%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. May was the busiest month here, with 99 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 80.9% on time and Sunday the weakest at 72.8%. 8 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 51% of the 9,574 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 51%Late-arriving aircraft
- 25%National Airspace System
- 21%Carrier
- 3%Extreme weather
51% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 9,574 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 15 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 9,574 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 8am–11am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 85.3% on time here.
Cancellations run at 4.45%, against 1.81% nationally. That is roughly one flight in twenty cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
8.1% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 284 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 8am–11am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 82.9% on time across 764 flights, 5 points above this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 5 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 764 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in ORF after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.45% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 8am–11am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 729 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
EWR to ORF questions
How often is EWR to ORF delayed?
Roughly one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 22.4% of the 764 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
How reliable is EWR to ORF compared with the rest of the country?
77.6% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.6%, a difference of half a point in its favour. That is worth a B− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on EWR to ORF?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 85.3% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 72.0%, 13 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are July delays on EWR to ORF?
July is the weakest month at 44.4% on time, compared with 89.1% in February. Across the year that is 45 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- ORF to EWR — the return legseparate record
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- Republic Airways on EWR to ORF83.1%
- United Airlines on EWR to ORF64.5%
- EWR to MCO, a related route77.1%
- ATL to ORF, a related route79.0%
- EWR to ATL, a related route77.6%
- Republic Airways on-time record83.1%
- United Airlines on-time record64.5%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. EWR to ORF and ORF to EWR are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed EWR to ORF’s on-time badge on your site
Paste this into a web page. The badge shows the current on-time rate, cancellation rate and grade, and updates every month. Preview it, or build a badge for another route or airport.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.